We find that backfire is stubbornly difficult to induce, and is thus unlikely to be a characteristic of the public’s relationship to factual information. Overwhelmingly, when presented with factual information that corrects politicians—even when the politician is an ally—the average subject accedes to the correction and distances himself from the inaccurate claim.

In light of the recent failures to replicate (with much larger and more diversified samples than the original studies), it seems to reasonable to conclude that the effect either is very weak to nonexistent or only appears under very restricted conditions. Such is the sad state of affairs in the social sciences.